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Show Makeup Technique Developed at SUSC CEDAR CITRY A Southern Utah State College theater student has developed a new make-up technique so that cast members in an upcoming campus-community production can look as realistic as possible. The Puritan witch hunts provide the historical background for Arthur Miller's award-winning drama "The Crucible" which is scheduled Feb. 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 at SUSC, and Director Douglas H. Baker wants to make the experience as real as possible for his audience. Miller's play Is based on events that took place in Salem, Mass., In 1692 which ended only after 19 men and women were sent to the gallows for being possessed of the Devil. "The Puritans made a covenant as a community to keep God's commandments, 'and should one individual break the covenant, so would the community as a whole," Baker says. "The play stems from the real life events that came about in the very strict and very disciplined theocratic society. "Miller's play is based on the hysteria of ignorance, on the fear and lack of communication generated by a closed, stifled society. There's a message in the play, simply that when you don't allow people to be human, they crack," the director says. Baker and his technical crew have worked very hard to convey' the restrictive elements of Puritan society into the play Itself. Sandra Sitlinski has designed costumes for the 21 cast members that keep to the prim browns, black and grays of Puritan garb while Deborah Grimshaw has designed a set to portray the stark and confining atmosphere in which the Puritan trials took place. Because the characters are to look as realistic as possible, senior theater major Darrell Phillips has develoepd a new make-up technique that will allow the young actors to look several years older. He makes full face masks out of latex that are formed from a cast of the actor's face then ruffled and furrowed to look aged. "This process could revolutionize make-up techniques. Darrell has made five masks, and I've never seen anything like them," Baker says. Phillips First makes a mold of the actor's face and neck which is then cast in plaster. To this plaster base, he adds clay to form the wrinkles and other effects of age then makes a latex mask from a mold of the reworked cast. The flesh-colored mask is then painted with acrylics to highlight skin tones and facial features then holes are cut out for the actor's eyes and mouth. "The masks are hot, the actors have to drink lots of water to avoid dehydration, but they're amazingly life-like," Baker says. "We have a 19-year-old playing an 87-year-old man, and you'd never know it." Phillips is a SUSC senior from Kingman, Ariz, in addition to his job as the make-up director for "The Crucible," he plays one of the major characters in the play. Since coming to SUSC from Mohave Junior College, he has done make-up for "Amadeus" and "Harvey" and worked last summer with the Utah Shakespearean Festival make-up crew. He will do wigs and make-up for SUSC's spring quarter production "The Importance of Being Earnest." A display of Phillips' mask-making technique will be exhibited in the auditorium foyer in conjunction with "The Crucible" run. New makeup techniques will enhance performances of "The Crucible" at Southern Utah State College Feb. 1,2 and 7-9. Patrick Sterling plays John Proctor and Lisa Berger plays Elizabeth Proctor. |